Portlaoise edge local derby to gain place in Hosie Cup semi-final
Portlaoise's Aaron Coiley drives at the heart of the Portarlington defence Photo: David Maher
Portarlington RFC 10
Portlaoise RFC 17
IN some ways this was your typical season opening game. Fitness might not have been what you might have liked, plenty of handling errors and deep (or should that be gasping) breathing.
But for all that this was quite an entertaining encounter with both sides giving it everything they had, but then you would expect nothing less in a local derby between Portarlington and Portlaoise looking for a place in this season Hosie Cup semi-finals.
Another thing that made this game a bit of a stand out fixture was that the fact it was played over three halves, as the man might say.
You would not have thought early on that this was going to be such a closely fought game with both sides enjoying periods of dominance. It was not until midway through the third period that Portlaoise might just edge it. But even then they had survive a few scary moments as the clock ticked down.
Played at Lea Road, the home team got off to a great start. Barely five minutes in a stroke of luck for Portlaoise when a Portlaoise player, in attempting to keep a penalty in play, knocked on the ball. From the scrum the home side went through the phases before prop Jack Hennessy crashed over for a try.
At this stage Portarlington were imposing themselves physically, driving hard at the Portlaoise defence, which credit to them, stood strong.
On the 20 minute mark Portlaoise struck for the equaliser. Darragh Davies turned over possession at a ruck on the 10 metre line and set off on a storming run, held off one tackle before going over in the corner.
This left the sides level on 5-5 at the first break.
The second phase was very much tit for tat and it was the visitors who broke the deadlock 20 minutes in. When Portarlington were penalised 120 metres from their own line Portlaoise decided to tap and go. They went through five or six phases, moving the play left and right and ending with Glen Connoly taking the ball on the burst and crashing over.
Two minutes later the sides were level again on 10 apiece. The Portarlington forwards took the direct route, up the middle and when the ball was moved right hooker Fintan Murphy was on hand to touch down.
The third phase had barely started when Portlaoise struck for what would be the winning score thanks to a silly penalty conceded by Portarlington player.
The home side safely won a scrum on the five metre line. As they kicked to safely one of their players impeded at Portlaoise play attempting to block the clearance.
Portlaoise scrum half tapped the ball to Paddy Coss who was stopped inches short. A quick delivery was popped to Sean Peters and there was no stopping that close. Keely added the conversion to leaving the score standing at 10-17.
To their credit Portarlington heads did not drop and for much of the remainder play was inside the Portlaoise half but their defence held solid and they now have a semi-final against Cill Dara to look forward to. The Kildare club beat North Kildare 18-13.
PORTARLINGTON: Anavil Storey; Peter Dunne, Eoin Worrell, Denville Maya, Reinas Balakauskas; Jack Hynes, Darragh Perry; Jack Hennessy, Fintan Murphy, James Dunne; Cuan Culliton, Toby Neilson-Dry; Warren Murphy, Gavin Crampton, Dylan Stronge.
Replacements: Conor Perry, Jack McCann, Jason Yellop, Richard Drennan, Jack Corr, Andrew Evans, Oisin Mooney-Sherlock.
PORTLAOISE: Mark Grenow; Edward White, Ryad Loufi, Jack Duffin, Iain Corrigan; Euan McCann, Mark Kelly; Aran Coiley, Ryan McEvoy, Paddy Coss; Michael Rigney, Sean Peters; Aaron Kingston, Cian Coffey, Darragh Davies.
Replacements: Ben Goodall, Joe Stevens, Glen Connolly, Maurice Downey, Owen McGowan, Mark Sherlock.
